some salad thoughts seeing this unusual spectacle of a mother and daughter nesting side by side on the lake near my boat..
Two swans nesting at the end of my boat pier ;other visitors .. some old pals .. some blow ins..
the awkwardness of us guys near the labour ward.
No attempt is made at rhyme or structure .. just mind pictures for the 1st of April as the buds come into life and the greening sweeps the land .
and there is a joy at just sitting there in a boat casting flies drifting by..

Submitted:Apr 22, 2009
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She labours stoically on the rocky outcrop off my boat .
And in her long confinement of 90 days she will but leave the
nest
When her fumbling mate comes diligently by to relieve of her
labour
And sit and incubate - until he's told to move off ;
And with rebuke of stark incompetence ,
He is ejected from the nest
Men useless men , never get the knack now shoo..
And with an enduring haughter

He waddles clumsily to the shore
His dignity scarcely recovered as he ruffles his feathers
In a manly way as if to say to me , with a conspiratorial glance-
knowingly he is still the boss and - it's a guy thing.

(Ive somewhere heard all this before )

He launches himself in the rippling
Surf that gathers on the shoreline like smoke stained candy
floss;
And he swims serenely on ;
Up and down the shoreline till he's called upon again
And again he'll come and make a hames of things ,like all
men
Be scolded .and when he's done his bit of incubation , gets
kicked
Unceremoniously from the nest ;And shooed away again.

I feel for him; he's just yielding to his feminine side - it's a
cob thing
Like that guy thing - we understand each other .

(Ive somewhere heard all this before )

Why she picks this rocky outcrop
Exposed the shards of north winds searing down thelake
And slashing rain from the sout but she she heeds neither element
,
Nor inconsiderate male intruder -
Just perseveres ;just right here , year after year

This my fourth year of our acquaintance
When first I met her on her rocky isthmus.
But she plays hard to get ,
And as my boat goes drifting down her shore she
Arches her graceful neck long enough to show her affront,
Or is it tolerance , or maybe loathing;
-hadn't thought of that .

And I almost turn away conscious of my intrusion

But this year I see her daughter
Has taken up by her mothers side ,
And she too is brooding , thinking ,dreaming
In the full exposure of the elements
And I know they're thinking
-why that bastard cant find somewhere else to fish?
Saw him catch one there last year ; is there no where else
?

This here is a girl thing ;
but they're utterly unthinking ,
selfish. Me me me all the time .

Where did I hear all this before ?

There's a kestrel in the tall spruces by the house.
Saw him yesterday just hover dive , suspend his flight in a
quiver and
Flyy and fluttter frozen in the sky ; swoop and soar woops aloft
again
To his look-out perch in the swaying branches.

Three magpies and a heron are hanging out there too ;
And today the house martins arrived .
Swiftly darting above the waves,
Ravenous after his long journey from the South - 1000 miles or
more
Glutinous now he sears through the swarms of buzzing duck
fly
whose clouds twist and turn in swaying vortices above the
hawthorn trees.

For now I'll let them be
Mother and daughter have much to
Gaggle about -
Yes they gaggle
- Its not geese
Girls gaggle
Its so much more becoming
Than giggling;
And swans don't do giggling;
They are much too serious
Ponderous
And if you like ; imperious .